
Championing the bad guys
5 key considerations for transforming perceptions
Words by: Vicki Young
Have you ever noticed how everyone loves to hate Recruitment Agencies? Much like Estate Agents, they seem to be victims of being largely disliked simply for working in that industry. When you think about it they are indeed very similar businesses — they are service providers who deal with us at two of the most significantly stress and emotion-led times of our lives — moving house and moving jobs. Their challenges include the likes of:
- Managing customers with extremely high expectations often with, dare I say, neither the expertise or budget to match those expectations. We’ve all been guilty of setting our expectations too high from time to time — especially if you’ve ever tried to buy or rent property in London!
- They are the facilitators of a transaction between two parties. For Recruiters these are the Candidate and the Employer. For Estate Agents they’re the Buyer/Tenant and the Seller/Landlord. The middle is not an easy place to be when emotions and stress levels are peaking on either side.
We’ve recently launched phase 1 of a new website and brand for Gabriele — a 25 year old Recruitment Consultancy business and one of the most reputable and recognised names in the creative industry. Knowing the team at Gabriele as well as we do, we felt they were getting a raw deal from the legacy reputation within their industry. They’re extremely dedicated and passionate professionals who foster fantastic relationships with both their clients and candidates. We felt very strongly that we wanted to help shift perceptions for them.
Our initial research into the online recruitment sector in the UK uncovered that the experience from recruiter to recruiter is largely comparable, and all equally uninspiring. For all parties online recruitment is not without its challenges. As a candidate searching for a job there are often swathes of questions to filter through leaving you wondering why on earth you bothered authoring that stellar CV in the first place. There’s nothing to make you feel like you’re anything more than data being fed into an algorithm that will determine your best match future. As the client, with a busy day job to contend with, the task of recruiting is often managed ‘on the move’ between meetings, however the mobile experience is either clunky or non-existent. As a recruitment consultant, you are restricted from being able to display the name of the employer so you need to write a compelling enough job description that differentiates it from similar jobs you might have at the same level. The experience is quite shockingly un-personal and many are left just feeling like a number. For something that is such a highly emotional investment, for both client and candidate, change was needed.
It is clear that the entire Recruitment Industry, and similarly the Property Industry, could be using more considered and smart brand strategy and design to improve the experiences of clients, candidates and their consultants. This in turn would only encourage greater engagement both internally and externally.
Here are our 5 key considerations based on how we’ve helped to transform perceptions for Gabriele within their industry.
1. Hunting on the move
Observation: When we looked at the data it was clear that when searching for a job candidates fit it around their already busy lives. However, the frequency of new jobs being posted means that people need to check back frequently, albeit often quickly, to sites to see if there are new postings. This can often mean having to waste time entering search terms and refining filters over and over.
Solution: Aside from ensuring that the site was mobile and tablet friendly, cookies were installed on the browser so that when you returned to the site it remembered who you were and what you searched for previously — reducing time wasted. This approach would be a beneficial feature for any Estate Agent or Recruitment Company.

2. It’s all about ME!
Observation: Yes, in my opinion we are a bunch of self centered egos when it comes to job hunting. The search is all about what this job gives me, what I want, my career development etc. After reviewing the recruitment sector it was clear that everyone was focused on the client and how best to serve them, not the candidates. Of course the clients are the ones who pay the bills, but without being able to attract the best candidates there’s no chance of filling those vacancies. In my mind the industry was making a huge mistake by not communicating that it’s a service for the candidates as much as for the clients.
Solution: As Gabriele is a creative recruitment business, the solution had to be a highly creative one. As part of the brand redesign we introduced a series of clever iconographies, used to cover the key requests and desires that a candidate would select. In essence as the candidate navigates their way through the site they collect icons that best represent them and what they’re looking for. This ensures that they feel the experience is truly theirs and Gabriele is able to see them as a individual, not just a number.

3. Avoiding the unspoken word
Observation: If you work in recruitment you’ll likely agree that writing job descriptions can be very challenging. You can’t say who the job is with but you need to capture the essence of the company, what the job requires, and what the distinct benefits are within the description, all without giving too much away as to who they are. There’s a lot of pressure on the job description — it’s the key piece of information that prompts a candidate to apply, yet your hands are tied behind your back as you can’t say who it is with. Added to this, you also need for the copy to be on brand and the right Tone of Voice for your business, while explaining the culture of someone else’s!
Solution: To help alleviate this challenge we introduced an extra field to the website’s database called ‘About The Studio’. This enabled Gabriele to add company perks in a quick and visual way that could help differentiate one job role from another. Outside of the creative recruitment sector, where ‘About The Studio’ might not be the right language for your customers, this could be replaced with information pertaining to business size, company age and growth rate perhaps.
4. Remove the barriers
Observation: For Gabriele, one of their biggest barriers had been their name. Prior to our rebrand they were called Gabriele Skelton. When we started working with them we focused on how effective their name was for them. Through research it became clear that the word ‘Skelton’ was causing the users some challenges. Spelling issues and bad recall were highlighted as blockers to people searching for the site or typing the URL.
Solution: We changed the name to Gabriele and immediately saw a positive change when we tested it. Recall rose significantly. If you do decide to change your name, remember that your existing customers need to be given time to acclimatise to the change. Keep your old URL and set up a redirect for a minimum of 12 months. Also ensure you have a good comms plan in place that explains the name change, and remember that unless they’re your closest customers, who deal with you day to day, people often need telling more than once!
5. One brand exporting to every touch point
Observation: Without the right back-end systems making it easier and less time-consuming to post jobs to your site and manage all of your external advertising, you can find a lot of your day is being eaten up with admin. Not the best use of anyone’s time and timing is vital in recruitment — getting the latest job adverts out quickly and in the most efficient way is key.
Solution: For Gabriele we gave their system an overhaul to ensure that when they add a job to the back-end of the site it syncs seamlessly with any other external platforms they push it out to. We also identified that the Gabriele brand really needed to be elevated within their advertising. Reviewing the market, we saw that many recruitment brands never venture beyond sticking their logo and colour palette on a job post, making the creation of a unique and on-brand advertising campaign almost impossible. Our introduction of Gabriele’s icon system, once paired with their newly refined Tone of Voice, ensured that they can advertise and send out the right strategic messages without the need to rely on a job post. To get the most out of your brand, do ensure that you’re considering the long term usage, and especially how it works for both external and internal marketing functions.

Click here to view Nalla’s case study on this and see the work we created for Gabriele
If you would like to chat with Vicki about the points highlighted in this article or how it may be relevant to your business challenges, please feel free to email her at vicki@nalla.co.uk.

About Nalla
We’re an obsessively curious team who create incredible brands of all shapes and sizes, across the globe. For more information about us, or our work follow us @nalla_design or go to our website nalla.co.uk
